78 Datsun

A friend of mine has a 78 datsun 280z. after sorting out a head unit wiring nightmare from whoever bastardized this car last, i found both of the factory speaker channels to the stock speakers and connect them to a pioneer head unit (  using the front channels). the stock speakers were replaced with pioneer 5-1/4's.  once everything was hooked up.. the sound is really bad.  at medium volumes the speakers crackle, pop, and distort. i know that the head unit is good, im fairly sure the fatory ground is good. my first guess is that the 25 year old speaker wire is no good. what are you opinions. i also know the speakers are not blown.

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I'm sure the oem wire is shot.they might have some shorts in them. I would get some good 16awg speaker wire and run all new. In a car that old I would not use any of the oem wires.

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Big Dave

ahhh, so it is a 280Z...

you are probably correct...could be just bad wire, or bad grounds in the car...the Z cars werent really designed for much else than going fast, heh...they are pretty good at that tho!

they are very poorly designed for any audio purpose at all, and it is hard to get speakers anywhere that they will actually sound nice in...trust me, I have 3 Zcars, heh...the cabins are just so compact that your soundstage is messed up no matter what you do...I personally have done door pods in mine, and a fellow enthusiast (both Zcar and audio) put his in the actual kick panels of his 72...the Zcar was virtually identical from 69-78, so they are all the same save for a few cosmetic interior pieces...

if I were you I would tell him if he wants a car to sound nice to buy something else, lol...unless he is willing to spend either alot of time or alot of money (or both) in the install, it is a very difficult thing to achieve...I have spent hours after hours in my car trying to figure out my soundstage and even now its not perfect, but just this side of tolerable...

Yes, these cars definitely weren’t designed for audio purposes. If it was my car ide probably fiberglass the kick panels, and build a false floor in the hatch area and sink the amp and sub into that. However its not my car and the owner really doesn’t wanna spend very much. On the brighter side of things he is used to having an old old alpine deck fire out of one factory 5 ¼ speaker, so pretty much anything will be better than what was in there to begin with. Im thinking the stock wiring is completely shot and new speaker wires will have to be run. Thanks for the opinions

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